Originally Posted by
andrewdoherty
Randy,
I don't know what level of traction your local carpet has, but when we don't have much of a groove in our carpet, it seems the carpet acts like a sponge absorbing the sauce (we use paragon only) out of the tires causing the same conditions you're describing. As the carpet becomes blacker (for example on a race day when it is constantly being infused with sauce), I notice the lap times become more consistent.
After our weekly club race today I thought I would add to what I already posted. Although I still believe what I said applies, I find it worth mentioning that an inefficient setup can rely too heavily on certain aspects of the car to develop steering/traction which can show itself with a drop in lap times over 8 minutes. As for what an efficient setup feels like, looks like, or is accomplished . . .I dunno!
I used to think the drop in times was purely a factor of the 1 cell lipo and sauce wearing off but after watching Yang's Speedmerchant (theisgroup) today I'm pretty sure I was partially wrong. He and I are pretty much in mutual agreement that were good competition for each other in terms of driving ability. He runs a SM and I am running an AE. In 13.5 12th today however, he was able to leave me easily. My car started out with 14.2'-3's and quickly dropped to 15.0's. On the other hand he started out with 14.4-5's and only dropped to 14.8's the last minute or so of racing.